Archive for 2023

HMM: The Kremlin reportedly accused three hypersonic missile scientists of treason.

Employees of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science published an open letter on May 15 in defense of three of their scientists — Anatoly Maslov, Alexander Shiplyuk, and Valery Zvegintsev — whom Russian authorities reportedly arrested in the past year under suspicion of committing “high treason.”[10] The open letter also noted that these arrests deter the younger generation from pursuing careers in science, which contributes to a decrease in the quality of scientific research. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that the Kremlin was aware of the open letter and that Russian security services are involved.

Russia’s “unstoppable” hypersonic Kinzhal missiles — which aren’t even hypersonic as properly understood — have underperformed so far.

CHRIS WHO? OH, THE BEACH-MEME GUY.

https://twitter.com/xenophonrocks/status/1659372948757651460

BOB MCMANUS: Stopping thieves doesn’t need more acronyms — it needs arrests!

Shoplifters are stripping New York’s retail shelves all but bare these days, and fare-beaters are busting the MTA’s budget. But not to worry — City Hall has acronyms.

Gotham’s best and brightest have studied these problems for months now, and both City Hall and the MTA just coughed up proposed solutions.

The Adams administration offers PROP — the Precision Repeat Offender Program.

This will comprise a list of serial retail thieves and City Hall will be checking it twice — or three or four or five times, whatever it takes to avoid arresting anybody.

Then there is RESTORE — or Re-Engaging Store Theft Offenders and Retail Establishments, which explicitly is intended to protect shoplifters from consequences.

If the powers that be set out to deliberately undermine civilized society, what would they do differently?

NOT A TERRORIST? The Biden Team Killed the Wrong Person Again.

U.S. military officials are walking back claims that a recent strike in Syria killed an influential al-Qaeda figure, following assertions by the dead man’s family that he had no ties to terrorists but was a father of 10 tending to his sheep when he was slain by an American missile.

Lotfi Hassan Misto, 56, whose family identified him as the victim of a Hellfire missile attack on May 3, was a former bricklayer who lived quietly in this town in northwest Syria, according to interviews with his brother, son and six others who knew him. They described a kind, hard-working man whose “whole life was spent poor.”

The operation was overseen by U.S. Central Command, which claimed hours after the strike, without citing evidence or naming a suspect, that the Predator drone strike had targeted a “senior Al Qaeda leader.” But now there is doubt inside the Pentagon about who was killed, two U.S. defense officials told The Washington Post.

“We are no longer confident we killed a senior AQ official,” one official said. The other, offering a slightly different view, said “though we believe the strike did not kill the original target, we believe the person to be al-Qaeda.” Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary determinations of an ongoing investigation into the incident.

In the weeks since the attack, U.S. military officials have refused to identify publicly who their target was, how the apparent error occurred, whether a legitimate terrorist leader escaped and why some in the Pentagon maintain Misto was a member of al-Qaeda despite his family’s denials.

In a statement, Michael Lawhorn, a spokesman for Central Command, said officials are aware of reports of a civilian casualty and continue to assess the outcome.

It’s par for the course for an Obama administration retread: Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki Would Have Been 26 Today If Not for the US Drone War.

RELEASE THE NASHVILLE MANIFESTO:

To demand the release of Audrey Hale’s undoubtedly deranged manifesto is not to “politicize” a tragic act of mass murder. Indeed, Biden, national Democrats, and their apologists in the corporate press have already done precisely that. Rather, it is merely to demand the same treatment as similar tragedies in the past, after which the mass murderers’ evil motives invariably become the center of public attention. But Christophobia, much like anti-Semitism, remains one of the final remaining forms of politically acceptable animus in the United States. Accordingly, nearly two months after the mass shooting and well after Nashville police and the FBI deemed it prudent to comply with a braying transgender activist mob, whether Hale’s manifesto is released is a legal matter awaiting its fate before an ever-fickle judge.

Read the whole thing.

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOLARS writes in defense of Prof. Scott Gerber, who was removed from his classroom by armed officers at the beheast of the Ohio Northern University administration, apparently for the “crime” of opposing their DEI programs.

I am appalled by the treatment ONU’s senior administrators have meted out to Professor Gerber. His account published in The Wall Street Journal and the statement issued by FIRE are powerful indictments of the unfairness, callousness, and abuse of process that ONU has exhibited—I would say “in this case,” but in fact there is no case. As far as we on the outside can tell, there was only administrative whim.

I have known Professor Gerber for many years, and I know him to be sharp-witted and undeterred by pressures to conform himself to reigning ideology. He speculates in his WSJ op-ed that his criticisms of ONU’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies may have prompted the effort to purge him from the faculty. While that seems likely, we don’t know. But whatever motivated the administration to take this action, the manner of taking it is inexcusable. What could possibly justify interrupting a professor’s class in order to take him under escort to the dean? In the real world we call this bullying. Then to demand his capitulation on the spot without naming charges or following the university’s written procedures? In the real world we call this contempt and intimidation.

I understand that the administrator in question, Law Dean Charles Rose, was not you. But it is inconceivable that a dean would undertake such an action without prior approval of the college president. If Dean Rose was acting on his own, it would be clear grounds for his dismissal, which as far as I can tell has not happened. So you own this situation.

All stories have two sides, and I am sure you have “reasons.” As someone who has dealt with academic freedom matters on many campuses over the course of three decades, I have heard numerous stories of academic administrators who have been “fed up” with a faculty member who refuses to comply with what the administrator regards as a proper demand. Be that as it may, ONU has written rules and procedures laid out in its faculty documents. Your decision to bypass these rules and procedures was a mistake.

I don’t know what action Professor Gerber will take at this point, but I have my own sense of the right way this should be settled. You should apologize publicly to Professor Gerber and explain to your board that you made a grave mistake.

Yep. How likely is that, though?

Earlier coverage here.

IT’S NOT THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS, BUT IT CERTAINLY AIN’T THE WORST:  When Our House burned Down.

I WASN’T AWARE THE LESBIAN TWIST-MOP HAD CHILDREN, MUCH LESS ALL TRANS CHILDREN:  Karine Jean-Pierre at GLAAD Event: Trans Kids ‘Are Our Kids, They Belong to All of Us’.

This is communitarian nonsense. All of us haven’t birthed any children together. (And if I had been a part of any such thing, anyone who tried to convince them they were trans before legal maturity would be shaken till their teeth fell out, no matter what the rest of the parents thought.)

Children are the children of a specific couple. They have people who love them and have invested their genetic heritage and time in them. Not to mention treasure, hopes, tears and many nights awake. Sure there are some bad parental apples, but almost none compare to the unmitigated horror of most government child care.

Listen, you refugee from hell’s janitorial closet: No sale. Go sell it where people are dumber.

BUILD OVER, BUILD UNDER, BUILD AROUND:  24 Republican governors pledge to assist Texas in securing its border.

If the Feds refuse to do their constitutionally mandated job, let the states do it. If the Feds try to do jobs for which it has no authority (most of what it does, in fact) ignore them.

If thine color-revolutionered in government offends thee (and how wouldn’t it) cut it out from anything that matters. They decided which day is asparagus appreciation day, and give pretty prizes to pre-school girls. Just don’t let Biden sniff them.

PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GET HURT. BUT PROBABLY NOT THE ONES SCREAMING HOW SCARED THEY ARE:  The Real Threat.

I WILL ADMIT, IF COMMUNISM WERE A RACE I’D BE PRETTY RACIST:  The paradox of racism.

THE TELLING THING ABOUT THE OCCUPIERS IN GOVERNMENT IS THAT THEY CAN’T HIRE ANYONE WHO ISN’T CRAZY AND A CROOK:  Sam Brinton Has Another Baggage Problem.

You’d think once, by accident, they’re hire a mere incompetent, or perhaps a harmless loon. But no, they go for crazy criminal every time. Maybe that’s all there is in their circles? Or perhaps what they prize?